with front vinyl bench seating which was HORRID, you could NOT adjust the recline of the seat back in any meaningful way.

After spending the younger part of my life riding in and driving 60s, 70s and 80s motorized trash heaps, my back has become convinced that the un-reclineable seatback angle is ideal. Now I waste time trying to adjust adjustable seatbacks so they duplicate the fixed angle automotive engineering marvels of the past.

I took my driver education in a 1978 Fairmont.Powerhouse 200-6/automatic.Must have had really econo rear gearing as it couldnt even climb a moderate hill without a 2nd gear downshift,and no additional RPMs or MPH.The seats were bolt upright,the steering wheel hard plastic,no gauges,and a chemical smell coming from inside the dash.Running the heater would make the smell worse.The driving instructor was really enamored with the car and kept saying that he was going to buy it when it was retired.I told him,just order a new 2 dr Fairmont Futura with a 302v8 and get it over with...but he kept saying he liked this one.Amazingly,the car remained as a drivers ed car thru most of the 1980s.It was eventually replaced by an Escort wagon that saw the rear wheels splayed regularly with a load of kids inside.It lasted around a year when it was replaced by a Tempo.As long lasting as the Fairmont was,I grew to appreciate the K cars as a better alternative,especially the later fuel injected 86-up models.

Strongly disagree. It actually looks like it is in very good shape, and it lets him demonstrate how to work on older cars and modifications... something his viewers are asking for. He had a video about this recently on his other channel. It is a project car - he has other cars to use as reliable daily drivers.

Speaking of the Ford Fairmont, here's one that definitely has some non-stock components

I took my driver education in a 1978 Fairmont.Powerhouse 200-6/automatic.

LOL Me too, except it was probably a 1980 model.

I recall you had to press in on the turn-signal stalk to blow the horn. One of those "Better Ideas" from Ford!

Later, we had an '82 Mercury Zephyr (Mercury's version of the Fairmont - it probably had a better grade of fake-wood decals on the dash). That car had a low-temperature threshold beyond which it would not - WOULD NOT - start. I think it was about 20 degrees. Which happens only about 60 times per winter here in the Chicago area. The car was a pile.

I recall you had to press in on the turn-signal stalk to blow the horn. One of those "Better Ideas" from Ford!

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Actually this set up was common in Italy, France and other European countries. I believe the idea was to prevent unnecessary use of the horn, which was very common in Europe. I', pretty sure that SOME European Fords, Opel, Fiat, Peugeot, Citroen, Renault, used the exact same set up as well.

The fines for using your horn in designated quiet areas in parts of Europe is VEEEEERY steep. It can be thousands of dollars for example, if it is a hospital zone.

Also in the recent past some car models actually had low volume horn settings that could be chosen by the driven depending on the environment.